Coway makes Airmega air filtration systems that suck allergens out of the air in your home. And now it's making the devices easier to control, with the integration of Amazon Alexa voice commands, starting in mid-January. On top of that, the company will ship a graphite version of its filtration system in mid-February. The graphite unit will come in the Airmega 400 ($750) and 400s ($850) models. The Alexa integration is one more example of how much easier it can be to control devices when they become part of the Internet of Things, which is making everyday objects smart and connected. With Alexa, you can now ask Airmega for updates on indoor air quality, filter lifetime, fan speed changes, timer setup, and more.

Amazon's Alexa, the personal assistant that launched with the Amazon Echo smart speaker, completely dominated this year's Consumer Electronics Show. Just ask anyone: "Alexa Just Conquered CES. The World Is Next," read one Wired headline. CNBC, the BBC, MIT Technology Review, and many others all had equally laudatory reports. Companies like Ford, Huawei, LG, as well as a long parade of startups, all unveiled home appliances, phones, cars, and more gadgets with Alexa integration.

Those amazing, lifelike robots, reports Jefferson Graham on #TalkingTech. LAS VEGAS --The one, coolest thing from this year's 2017 CES is an easy pick -- those amazing robots. We saw robots to make your morning coffee, pour candy, fold your clothes, turn on and off your lights, project a movie on the wall, handle your daily chores and most impressively, look just like a human, or in this case, legendary scientist Albert Einstein, with facial expressions and movement. Why did robots dominate CES? You can thank the popularity of Amazon's Alexa for showcasing the technology of a voice-activated personal assistant.

Although we saw more of what dominated the tech scene last year -- smart home products, wearables and enough Amazon Echo partnerships to make your head spin -- some new products shined brightly above the rest. From an underwater drone to the car of the future, here's a look at what impressed us most. Toyota unveiled a concept car to highlight its vision for what cars may look like in 2030. With see-through glass doors, wheels built directly into the body and a bright white interior and exterior, the future is looking pretty sleek. While you'd think we'd be riding in self-driving vehicles by then, the car isn't fully autonomous.

Google has an edge in building voice technology, thanks to its unmatched repository of search data. But the company must prove it can distribute its assistant widely. The same month Google debuted its Pixel phone, Samsung, the largest Android phone manufacturer, acquired Viv Labs, a startup building a voice-powered assistant. Samsung plans to roll out an AI platform for its devices this year, the company said in a statement. Apple Inc., which tightly controls about 40 percent of U.S. smartphones, is investing in a similar push with its Siri voice assistant.

The 5 minute read by Conor McMahon, Reporter at FORA - Automated financial advice is expected to shake up the wealth management sector. "SO-CALLED'ROBO-ADVISORS' already manage billions of dollars in the US, but they have yet to make their way to these shores. Traditional wealth management has been largely untouched by the march of digital on this side of the Atlantic, and the sector is still overwhelmingly burdened by paper and admin work. Automated financial advice is already making waves in the UK, and Ireland could see a surge of robo-advice firms setting up shop in a bid to access investors in Europe. Fora spoke to fintech expert Peter Oakes, founder of Fintech Ireland and a former director at the Central Bank, to get the lowdown on what exactly robo-advisors do and how they might shake things up in 2017"

For the 2017 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, smart home innovator Vivint decided to announce not one but three major partnerships and a brand new artificially intelligent home assistant. After revealing collaborations with the accommodations giant Airbnb, solar leader Vivint Solar, and Citizens Bank, Vivint also lifted the veil on its new smart device secretary, Sky. Perhaps equally as impressive as the announcements was Vivint's own CES booth, which showed off its array of smart-home gear and highlighted the new additions. Concerning its link with Airbnb, Vivint aims to give users of the housing service keyless access to rented properties, the capability to greet and verify customers via its doorbell camera, and 24/7 home security and monitoring. To help Airbnb hosts with the transition, Vivint says it will provide its professional team of smart-home pro installers to take the lead on setting up an entire home or apartment.

A San Diego TV station sparked complaints this week – after an on-air report about a girl who ordered a dollhouse via her parents' Amazon Echo caused Echoes in viewers' homes to also attempt to order dollhouses. Telly station CW-6 said the blunder happened during a Thursday morning news package about a Texan six-year-old who racked up big charges while talking to an Echo gadget in her home. According to her parents' Amazon account, their daughter said: "Can you play dollhouse with me and get me a dollhouse?" Next thing they knew, a $160 KidKraft Sparkle Mansion dollhouse and four pounds of sugar cookies arrived on their doorstep. During that story's segment, a CW-6 news presenter remarked: "I love the little girl, saying'Alexa ordered me a dollhouse'."

Summary: IBM's Watson as it exists today is as close as we've come to a single integrated platform for AI. It contains all the capabilities for image and video, natural language speech and text input and output, and the most comprehensive knowledge recovery module yet combined together. If you want to exploit the advances we've made in AI you need to understand where Watson is today and where it's heading. Recently we wrote about how the'popular' Watson of Jeopardy fame still lingers in the memories of our non-data scientist colleagues and perhaps misleads them about the capabilities of AI. It's time we got in tune with the modern Watson, or more correctly IBM's Watson Group and its Watson platform and took a look at all there is to offer. There are three broad capabilities in today's AI and they are: Image and video processing: Largely driven by Convolutional Neural Nets (CNNs) this field has been getting most of the press with capabilities like facial and object recognition.

The new SHIELD TV, introduced during the opening keynote at CES in Las Vegas, puts your world at your command. SHIELD is the first streamer to offer hands-free voice control, bringing AI to the living room and beyond. NVIDIA SHIELD is the center of NVIDIA's home AI strategy. It relies on the hands-free Google Assistant, smart home hub integration and an AI mic accessory, the NVIDIA SPOT, to extend intelligent voice control throughout your home. SHIELD is the first third-party Android TV device to announce support for using the Google Assistant, hands-free, bringing the power of Google to your living room.